


In the Cenote

by accidentallyanoctopus



Category: Hellboy - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: A little bit of commentary on culture loss, Abe Sapien says fuck the military, BPRD AU, Diego Luther and Klaus are agents of the BPRD, Ignore the canon timeline it's not gonna make sense, Luther and Diego being awkward siblings, M/M, Mexican Sinkholes, Nathan's here cuz of course, Team Bonding, Trauma Recovery, Trust Issues, Vampires, Wow Abe Sapien really is a fish man, Wowie it's Diego's secondary ability, crossover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 13:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19746682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accidentallyanoctopus/pseuds/accidentallyanoctopus
Summary: Diego takes on his first mission as an agent of the BPRD.





	In the Cenote

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a series of interconnected crossover fics involving Luther, Klaus, and Diego Hargreeves as BPRD agents.

“You asked for me?”

Diego steps into Professor Broom's office, feeling as if he's been summoned by his father. He knows that it's not the same, that the Professor is a kind, honest man, nothing like Sir Reginald Hargreeves. But he thinks he can be forgiven for being wary.

“I have a mission for you, Diego,” Professor Broom says. “Two miners have been found dead at the surface of a Mexican cenote, or underwater cave system, drained of all their blood, with a third still missing. Your mission is to find the creatures responsible for this and destroy them.”

“So I'm guessing you want me for this mission cuz I can breathe underwater.” It makes sense to send someone who doesn't need supplemental oxygen into an underwater environment.

Broom nods. “You've been selected for this mission not only due to your secondary ability, but your primary one as well. We have reason to believe that the culprits behind the miners' gruesome deaths are a coven of vampires. Your skills with projectile weapons will be quite useful in dispatching the creatures.”

Diego nods. Vampires, huh? Well, if what he's heard about the creatures is true, then a coven living deep in a cave system would make sense. No sunlight in there to hurt them, meaning they wouldn't have to hide during the day.

“You'll be accompanied by one of our senior agents, Doctor Abraham Sapien.”

Diego hears odd-sounding footsteps, and turns to come face-to-face with a one of the strangest-looking people he's ever seen. The...man has deep green colored skin and bulging yellow eyes, but that's hardly his weirdest feature. He seems to have been constructed from parts of a fish, a frog, and a human, with slick skin, webbed hands and feet, and a collar of fringed gills around his neck. When he opens his mouth, Diego can see rows of pearly white teeth inside his lipless maw.

“Mister Hargreeves,” he says, extending a hand. Honestly, Diego was half-expecting him to go “ribbit ribbit” instead of speaking actual words. Reluctantly, he reaches out to give the hand a shake, and grimaces as he finds out it's as slimy as he imagined.

“Call me Diego,” he says, wiping his hand on his pants. “So you're Abraham Sapien.”

“Yes. Though you can call me Abe if you like.”

“Abraham will be the senior officer on this mission, but also your partner,” Professor Broom continues. “You will refer to him, along with Captain Ewles, during your mission.The two of you will be venturing into the underwater cave system together, with a rescue team waiting at the entrance if you do not return within a specified time period.”

Diego notices that Abe makes a sour face when the Professor mentions Captain Ewles, but he doesn't ask why just yet. Probably involves a level of office politics he'd rather not be a part of, anyway. Maybe Ewles is fish-man racist or something.

The two of them are handed thick manila folders full of documents, and then are sent on their way with a “good luck” from Professor Broom. As Diego flips through the pages, Abe speaks again.

“You know, I did always wonder why you were called 'The Kraken.' It makes sense now.”

“Yeah,” Diego grunts. “Though the old man always said that my secondary power was useless, so I don't know why he decided to go with that for my codename.”

Abe nods, then pauses for a few moments before speaking again. “You know that Reginald used to a member of the Bureau, right?”

Diego nods. Yeah, Professor Broom had told him that. It made sense.

“Do you know why he was let go?”

Diego looks over at Abe, his curiosity piqued. “Um...no....?”

“Well, as head of the Bureau, Professor Bruttenholm maintains a high moral standard for his employees and associates. Your father....disagreed with that, so he was told to take his research elsewhere.”

Diego nods again. “Yeah, that sounds like my old man.” He inwardly shudders thinking about what that could mean. How many other people have suffered at the hands of that psychopath?

There's an awkward silence for a few minutes before Abe speaks again.

“I hope that the Professor's former association with your father doesn't taint your perception of him. He really is a good man.”

Diego shrugs, but doesn't respond. Yeah, he'll see about that. He hears the odd squishy footsteps again as Abe stands up and leaves. What a weird guy. He doesn't seem dangerous, though.

“...yeah, I miss you too. I can probably come visit after I'm done in Mexico, though.”

Diego sits on his bunk in the barracks, phone to his ear as he talks to Nathan. Not being able to see his boyfriend's cute face or hear his cheerful voice all the time has been really hard for Diego, even though working for the BPRD has made him feel more fulfilled than he has in years. He actually feels like he's protecting people, feels like he's making a difference. He just wishes it didn't mean that he had to be all the way in Colorado while Nathan stays back in Queens.

“I hope so,” Nathan says. “I need some serious quality cuddle time with my Puppy.”

Diego chuckles, his face heating up a little. “Yeah, it's fucking freezing here, babe. You're gonna have to cuddle me for a long time so I can get warm again.”

“Challenge absolutely accepted. Besides, I know other ways to warm you up, wink wink nudge nudge.”

Diego feels his face heat up even more, imagining Nathan on top of him, touching him in all the right ways. God, he misses his boyfriend so fucking much.

“Hi, Diego.”

A familiar voice immediately snaps Diego out of his fantasy. Luther is in the doorway, his massive frame casting a deep shadow across the room.

“Shit,” he says to Nathan. “I gotta go. Luther's here.”

“Awwww, okay,” Nathan whines. “Tell him I say hi, though. Bye, Puppy! Love you!”

“Love you too, Baby Bear.” Diego hangs up, and gives his brother a pointed look. “What do you want?”

“Nothing. This is my room, too, you know.” Luther steps inside, ducking so he doesn't hit his head on the doorjamb. “You didn't have to stop talking to him just because I'm here, though.”

“Like I wanna exchange sweet nothings with my boyfriend in front of my brother. He says hi, by the way.”

Luther shrugs, sitting down on his own bunk, the frame creaking loudly with his weight. He pulls a thick manila folder from one of his jacket pockets and begins to flip through it. Diego fools around with his phone for a few minutes until the silence in the room gets to be unbearable.

“So I see you got a mission, too. Where you headed?”

“Mongolia,” Luther grunts. “Some mysterious temple rose out of the Gobi Desert a few days ago, and Professor Bruttenholm wants Agent Sherman and I to go check it out.”

“Agent Sherman's the lady with the fire powers, right?”

The other man nods. “Yeah. I haven't met her yet, have you?”

“No, not yet. I met Abe today, though.”

Luther looks up from his documents. “Who's Abe?”

“Doctor Abraham Sapien,” Diego clarifies. “He's the fish guy. Here, I've got his dossier.”

Diego digs out his own manila folder, taking out the aforementioned document and handing it to Luther. Luther studies it for a few minutes, nodding to himself as he reads. Diego stops himself from making a joke about whether Luther can actually read or not.   
“Oh, okay.” Luther hands the document back to Diego. “So you and him are going on a mission together?”

“Uh huh. Underwater cave system in Mexico. Two miners were found floating at the entrance with all their blood drained. Professor thinks it's probably vampires in a connected cavern and wants me and Abe to go and kill them.”

Luther nods. “And Klaus is currently in Alaska with that Alice Monaghan girl. It's strange, you know. Not going on missions all together.”

Yeah, it is kind of strange. Diego can't help but think he prefers it, though. It's better like this, not having Luther breathing down his neck or having to constantly worry about Klaus. He knows Luther wishes it was still all of them together, though, and he really doesn't blame him. Sure, things were fucking awful back then, but at least they made sense.

The next morning, Diego rises early, leaving Luther snoring away in his bed. He showers, shaves, brushes his teeth, dresses, and packs his bag. He sends texts to Nathan and Klaus, eats a quick breakfast, and by 7:30 he's down in the hangar waiting for the rest of his team.

“Good morning, Diego.”

Abe walks in, wearing an army-green combat vest with the BPRD logo on it and pants in the same color, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He sits down on the bench next to Diego and pulls out a book. Diego can see that the cover and pages have been coated in some sort of waterproof casing.

“Morning, Abe. You know when we're gonna be heading out?”

“I think in about half an hour or so. The Professor is giving the rest of our team one last briefing,” Abe says. “Probably giving Captain Ewles an earful about how the Bureau isn't a military organization again.”

“Seems like you and Elwes don't get along very well.”   
Abe makes a noise that Diego thinks is supposed to be an amused snort. “You could say that. You'll soon come to realize that there's some....divisions between the scientific, field operations, and military parts of this organization. Each likes to think they're the ones in charge, instead of working together towards a common goal.”

“Yeah, I know what that's like. Someone gets it in their head that they're the boss and fucking woe to anyone who stands in their way.”

“Exactly.”

They sit in silence after that, Diego messing around with his phone as Abe reads his book. Eventually, the sound of footsteps echoes through the hangar. Diego looks up to see a group of military personnel, led by a scowling middle-aged man with a crew cut and piercing blue eyes. That must be Captain Ewles.

“Agent Sapien, Agent Hargreeves.”

“Doctor Sapien,” Abe mumbles, but stands up anyway, closing his book. Diego follows his lead, getting to his feet.

Ewles extends a hand to Diego, and the two men exchange a quick handshake. It might be just his distrust of most white men, but Diego already doesn't like this guy. Something about him screams “if I don't get what I want, I take it out on people I think are below me.” And Captain Elwes clearly thinks Abe Sapien is below him, which means he probably thinks Diego is too.

Accompanying Captain Elwes are three other military-looking people. There's a youngish-looking black man carrying an array of communications equipment, an older white woman carrying medical supplies, and another white man with a clipboard. The latter looks like he's barely out of high school. Ewles introduces them as Officer Victor Walsh, Doctor Maude Sanders, and Private Christopher Tennant. Private Tennant gets an excited look on his face when he notices Diego, but Diego quickly shoots him his nastiest look. The last thing he needs on this mission is an Umbrella Academy fanboy.

Finally, they board the plane and take off into the sky. Diego takes advantage of the onboard Wi-Fi to mess around on his phone again, glad that none of the other passengers seem to be in a talkative mood either. He can feel Ewles' eyes on him the whole time, though, sizing him up. Six hours later, they land in Mérida, and are introduced to Mayor Joaquin Diaz, the BPRD's Mexican military liaison. His face lights up when he sees Diego, and Diego gets another bad feeling.

Sure enough, Diaz immediately starts talking to him in rapid-fire Spanish, and Diego groans, holding up his hand to stop the man.

“I'm sorry, sir, but I don't speak the language.” Diego can feel a knot of shame and anger coiling in his stomach. It's always so embarrassing to admit that, despite being ethnically Mexican, he has no grasp of the language or culture. Another thing Reginald Hargreeves stole from him. He hears Ewles snort amusedly behind him, and suppresses the urge to whirl around and punch him in the face.

Diaz and his team take them deep into the Mexican jungle, their Jeeps bouncing along the muddy, rutted roads. As they travel, Diaz recaps the information they've already been given, along with some more information.

“So what do you gringos know about cenotes?” he asks. Diego kinda resents being called that, but he has to admit it's kind of true.

“Underwater cave systems,” Abe replies. “They were sacred to the Maya, who believed that they were entrances to the underworld.”

“That's right, Doctor Sapien, but I'd be careful with your use of the past tense. Plenty of people out here still hold onto pre-colonial beliefs and traditions. It's the same all over this country; in Mexico, the past and the present aren't always so distinct.”

Diaz looks straight at Diego as he says the last part, as if he's trying to pass along something to him. For what feels like the millionth time, Diego desperately wishes he had at least some connection to his homeland. Something he could use to identify himself as part of the culture that should have been his birthright.

After what feels like ages, the Jeeps finally pull into a clearing and they disembark. As soon as they do, it's like there's a change in the air. It's weird, but this place feels sacred. And old. It feels really, really old.

The cenote stands like a bright blue puddle at the edge of the clearing. As Diego and the rest of the team get closer, it becomes obvious how deep the hole is. Abe immediately starts stripping down to a pair of skintight black shorts, and Diego follows his lead, replacing his t-shirt, tactical pants, and boots with a wetsuit and flippers.

Abe gives his shirtless torso an amused look, and Diego worries that he's making fun of his top surgery scars until he points to his nipple ring.

“A nipple piercing, huh? Never thought you'd be the type.”

“My stupid little brother dared me to get it on my 20th birthday,” Diego snaps, and the conversation is over.

He straps on a belt containing a waterproof bag of protein bars and water, a waterproof flashlight and camera, and a row of wooden stakes. He loops a silver cross on a chain around his neck, as does Abe.

“Alright,” Captain Ewles says. “You boys will be heading down into the hole while these two-” he points at two Mexican military men already setting up their oxygen tanks and wetsuits- “will be coming in after you if we don't hear from you in 36 hours. Understood?”

“We understand,” Abe says tersely. “The plan is to find the connected chamber, exterminate the supposed vampire coven, and return to the surface either via the underwater tunnels or using the shaft created by the miners.”

“Good luck, you two,” Diaz says. “We're counting on you both to kill those bloodsuckers before they find out how to get to the surface.”

Diego sends one more text to Nathan before he and Abe enter the cenote. “We're going in. Remember, whatever happens, I love you.”

The water is warm and bright at the surface, but quickly grows cold and dark as they descend. The pressure also steadily mounts, and Diego can feel it pushing against him, trying to crush him. They use a piece of red line to mark their path, trailing it behind them like Theseus in the labyrinth. Except instead of a minotaur, there are vampires waiting for them once they reach the center.

They swim for hours upon hours, and Diego realizes why, for those who can't breathe underwater, cave diving is so dangerous. The passageways are dark and tight, and the kicking of his flippers and Abe's feet sends clouds of silt up from the bottom, making it almost impossible to see at times. It would be far too easy to get lost or stuck and run out of oxygen, leaving the poor divers down here for eternity.

After what feels like years, they surface in a pitch black room, and Diego stifles a groan as the change in pressure gives him a splitting headache. He takes out his flashlight and nearly goes blind from a dazzling display of light and color. The entire cavern is coated in a fine layer of crystals, sparkling in the beam of light. Abe lets out a gasp of surprise, and immediately asks for Diego's camera. He takes a series of pictures as they both marvel at the beautiful sight. Their awe quickly turns to horror, however, as Diego's flashlight sweeps over a pile of bones topped with a fresh corpse. The dead miner stares blankly at them, his skin ashen and drained of blood. Hauling himself out of the water, Diego goes to get a closer look at the body. Sure enough, there's two large puncture wounds on the man's neck.

“Well, now we know what happened to the third guy,” Abe says quietly. “And that's a lot of bones. Which means-”

Abe is cut off by a deafening shriek. A large shape swoops down from the ceiling at them, and the fish man quickly ducks under the surface, leaving Diego alone with the creature. He curses, tugging at his flippers as he presses his body against the wall of the cave, his flashlight beam bouncing erratically. Farther into the cave, he can hear the sounds of more creatures awakening, their shrieks and flapping wings filling the chamber with noise.

Once his flippers are off, Diego reaches for a stake, his flashlight beam finally settling on the creature that attacked him. It resembles nothing so much as a giant, hairless bat, its eyes glowing a dull red and its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The vampire hisses, shielding itself from the light with its wings. Diego lines up his arm with the creature, and takes the shot.

The vampire swats the stake out of the air and screams in rage, lunging for him. Diego ducks and rolls, and lets out a yell of his own as he realizes the crystals covering the ground are razor-sharp. They slice at his wetsuit, tearing it open and leaving bloody scratches on his skin.

“Dammit! Fuck! Abe, you coward!” How dare his partner abandon him to fight these monsters alone? Diego wonders if that was the plan all along, to lead him into danger and let him get killed. It wouldn't make much sense, but his paranoid brain whirls with thoughts of conspiracy and betrayal.

Before he can get to his feet, another one of the vampires enters the fray and falls on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Diego tries to wrestle it off, but the creature is too strong. He tries to reach to his belt for another stake, but his arms are pinned as well.   
The other vampire lets out a cry of victory, and it closes in upon him, the creature pinning him down snuffling wetly at his neck. Diego lets out a sob of terror. He's gonna die here, alone, deep in this cave, or even worse, he'll become one of these horrible monsters. He thinks of Nathan back in the apartment in Queens, thinks of him receiving the news of his death. Thinks of his family, of them losing another sibling. He -

“Excuse me.”

Diego opens his eyes. Just barely visible in the beam of his fallen flashlight is Abe, standing on the other side of the room, a stake in his hand. The vampires whirl to look at him, and Diego's heart soars. He wasn't abandoned after all!

The first vampire screams again, lunging at Abe, but the fish man is too quick. Abe lunges forward as well and drives the stake right into the creature's heart, killing it instantly. The vampire on top of Diego lets out a howl of rage, and lifts its body just enough for Diego to reach down to his belt. He drives the stake through the vampire's heart, grimacing as he's coated in the creature's blood. Rolling the dead beast off of him, he stands and flashes Abe a grin and a nod.

The rest of the fight is a whirl of blood and screaming as Abe and Diego take out the remaining coven members, the floor of the cave becoming slick and red. Diego stakes vampire after vampire, reveling in the action and gore. Now this is an actual fight, an actual challenge, finally after all these years.

When the vampires lay dead around them and Diego's bloodlust is sated, they clean themselves in the water. Abe produces a first aid kit and they bandage eachother's wounds, most of them caused by the crystal-lined floor.

“You saved my life,” Diego says finally. “I thought, well....”

“I'm sorry if it seemed like I had abandoned you.”

“It's alright.”

Abe has shown, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Diego doesn't need to be wary of him. He may be strange, but he's a good partner and a valuable teammate. Though Diego knows he can't trust everyone he meets in the BPRD, he can trust Abe, and honestly, that's good enough for him.


End file.
